This opinion piece authored by Janet Dickerson was originally published on November 11, 2016 on Medium.

In many ways, conversations in the aftermath of Trump’s electoral win have felt almost like how people try (and fail) to offer condolences and comfort after the death of a loved one. Trying to talk to others about how to make sense of the shock of it all has been a minefield of well-intentioned but woefully misguided advice, religious pontificating, and tone-deaf sympathies that, frankly, only piss people off more. Here are a few of the absolute worst:

Nearly $156,000 has been raised from Blackout for Human Right‘s #JUSTICEFORFLINT event, where more than 2,000 people — the majority of which were Flint residents — packed the The Whiting Auditorium Sunday night in Flint, Michigan. To date, more than 4,000 people have contributed personal donations via text and online, both during and after the livestream broadcast of the event, which aired exclusively on REVOLT. tv. Read more →

Political Analyst, Media Commentator and Women’s Rights Advocate Zerlina Maxwell announced yesterday on Twitter that she has officially joined Hilary Clinton’s campaign as a Digital Outreach strategist. Read more →

In addition to being a force to be reckoned within the racial and social justice arenas, Black Lives Matter has helped usher forward a new era in online advocacy and organizing. With their prolific use of the hashtag and highly-sophisticated cross-city media and communications strategy, Black Lives Matter has demonstrated an aptitude for developing well-crafted and tightly-controlled messaging, even as its organizational infrastructure remains largely decentralized. Read more →

These days most social media users are quick on their feet when thinking up engaging attention-grabbing status updates. Whether on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or any other platform with a “less is more” policy, people are becoming more creative in communicating their thoughts and opinions. Yet when we think about it, how many perfectly good ideas have been left on walls and news feeds never to be further fleshed-out or explored? Read more →